301 redirect not leaving out url parameters

[SEOViking]

I have the following in my .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^forum.*$ http://www.example.com [R=301,L]

but when i follow a link that has the form forum/index.asp?topic-id=3

then i end up here:
http://www.example.com/?topic-id=3

i just want the redirect to go to http://www.example.com, with no parameters.

any suggestions?

[dcrombie]

Try this:

RewriteRule ^forum /? [R=301,L]

;)

[SEOViking]

i should have been more clear, sorry.
i want [example1.com...] to be forwarded/moved permanently (301) to the root of http://www.example.com (a different site)

[dcrombie]

RewriteRule ^forum http://www.example.com/? [R=301,L]

[SEOViking]

thanks dcrombie, it worked. why the '?' at the end? that seems crazy. can you explain? thanks again.

[dcrombie]

The '?' represents an empty query string.